A Mindful Exercise – Life Laundry

Following my post earlier in the week on life laundry I have taken this on as a small spring cleaning projectwith revealing results. When I am working through something meditationis always my starting point supported by intuitive journaling. The combination of these two activities nearly always offer me the most natural solutions.

I was always think of January as my ‘drafting month’when I think about my year ahead and turn this thinking into plans. Like most people I know I always over-plan and therefore by early April I am in need of some careful editing. That is where I found myself this week. As March tipped into April it was time for a little bit of spring cleaning and this year it came in the form of Life Laundry. I borrowed this wonderful concept from a friend who mentioned it in an email where he was telling me that he was engaged in some life laundry activities. So armed with an emerging concept I disappeared into my garden studio to meditate and now I am sharing.

Using breath to help make my self comfortable I then focused on the symphony offered by the songbirds to take myself into a calm and peaceful place. Using a sky bluecolour wash I washed my mind to help remove demanding thoughts and released a sense of ‘being. ‘

I then visualized a washing line strung between two trees and moved my inner eyealong the washing line while pegging up tired and worn pieces of clothing. When I reached the end of the washing line I returned to the beginning and took some time contemplatingeach item on the line. In each case I scribbled a word across the item that I believed would help trigger some cleansing and new thinking. These words were –

People

Technology

Projects

Focus

Energy

Home

Appearance

Once I reached the end of the washing line again I strung a second one directly underneath the first one and went along pegging some desirable and attractive pieces of clothing.

Working from the top washing line and then the bottom I took one word from the top at a time and focused on how this could be cleansed. I scribbled the outcome of that cleansing across the new desirable pieces of clothing. I repeated this pattern along the entire length of the lines.

I then sat for a while reflecting on my two lines and shifting my attention from the top to the bottom. Using the songbirds I slowly came out of the meditation.

Sitting at my desk I then began to reproduce the visualization into my journal through pictures and words. I completed the first washing line before starting the lower one before going back and colouring it all in. While colouring I repeated the pattern I had established in the meditation by colouring a piece of clothing on the top line before colouring the piece below. I then moved onto the next piece of clothing and the top line and so on. It is often in my colouring phase that my thinking enters a place that rests between meditation and journaling and has the capacity to speak to both. I also intuitively reach for colours not allowing myself to give any conscious thought to those choices.

Once the colouring was completed I picked up a blue pen and wrote the final outcomes of the reflective process by responding the pattern. The result was amazing as I had no hesitation in being able to offer the solutions in each case. To give a couple of examples –

With reference to the trigger word of technology I had scribbled the word ‘comfortable’ on the piece of clothing below. Below that I offered the solution of Twiitter and Pinterest immediately identifying them as networks I feel comfortable working in. Facebook and a couple of others were notable absences. A more challenging part developed from the words Projects and Focus as during meditation I had cleansed that to give me the word ‘neat.’ With my blue pen I had then written ‘E-course, book, Project Poppy & Flowers’ which are the projects I have instinctively decided to focus on going forward. There are large areas of my work life missing here so that has given me a stronger sense of direction and neatened up my life.

I won’t offer anymore examples as this can be counter-productive.

Reflecting on my journal page I can clearly see how well the cleansing process has worked and I feel confident that my exercises in life laundry have been useful. More than that I feel able to move forward with a much stronger sense of inner peace and calmness and, I think, that is the only way for me to live.

I do hope this has been of some use to those of you feeling in the need of a little life laundry.